Sunset Valley Railroad LLC

Lay tiestrip on a sheet of metal or plastic to make threading easier

Cut spike detail here

Gap

.Assembling track

1) Before loading the rail onto the ties, you need to pre-bend any rail that makes up a curved portion of track.It is recommended that curves are made with the Sunset Valley Railbender. This puts a constant and even radius bend right up to the end of the rail. We do not recommend the dual railbenders that are on the market. These take a straight piece of track that is already assembled and bend it, and are intended primarily for the pre-assembled code 332 tracks that have a loose fit between the rail and the ties. The bending action pushes rail through the ties and puts a lot of stress and distortion on Sunset Valley track, where the rail is a snug fit on the ties.

2) Load rail onto the ties. Start by removing any burrs on the end of the rail with a small file.Set up a work space of 8-10 ft and lay a tie strip on the surface. Slide the rail through the ties. To facilitate this, put the tiestrip on a flat sheet of metal or plastic (shown below) as you slide it onto the rail, this lines up the tie to the rail and stops the rail hitting the sides or bottom of the spike detail, especially if you are laying track out in the field. Place another tie strip against the first, making sure the spacer tabs mate together, and repeat. Once the first rail is on all 6 tie strips the second can now be threaded. If a rail is stiff, check once more for burrs. WD-40 is also helpful.

3) When laying track, we recommend you stagger the joints at least 1 ft, preferably 3ft. This is especially beneficial on curves, the curve is much smoother. It was standard practice among most railroads for the same reason.

4) Slide a rail joiner on the end of the rail. Cut the spike heads off with a sharp knife under the joiner, or a sharp chisel pushed along the tie, as shown in the first photo. An alternative method is to bend the spikeheads up instead, and after the joiner is pushed through, they will gradually bend back to grip the rail, see next photo (Courtesy Andrew Beattie)

5) Leave a .060-.080” (1.5-2mm, or about 2 credit card thicknesses) gap between rails as you proceed. This allows for thermal expansion. A 6 ft stainless steel rail expands .048” (1mm) between 30ºF and 100ºF, nickel silver .049”, brass .052” and aluminum .066”. The rail temperature can exceed 150°F on a hot sunny day

6) There are many methods of mounting the track to the base. We recommend screwing it down every 2-3 ft through the centerline strip. Ballasting is optional, if used it will cover the screwheads and make the track look very realistic.

7) When using rail clamps, do not screw the track down. You must allow the track to ‘float’ in the ballast or on the track bed for thermal expansion. You do not need to put in expansion gaps as the rails are fixed to the clamps, Do not over tighten the stainless screw as in time the clamp will crack or break.

Tiestrips, per 1ft length

Code

Price

Mainline 45mm (16 ties/ft)

TI

$2.95

Narrow gauge 45mm (10 ties/ft)

TI NG

$2.95

Dual gauge 45/32mm

TI DG

$2.95

"O" gauge 32mm

TI OG

$2.95

Track

Track comes in 6ft sections, and comprises 2 lengths of rail, 6 tiestrips of 1 ft each and 2 railjoiners. Replace the XX in the codes below by the material type, AL for aluminum, BR for brass, NS for Nickel Silver and SS for Stainless, for example TR BR is mainline brass track. As well as track, you can buy rail and ties separately. We supply joiners and clamps to connect pieces of track. We have special clamps (RJ CL LGB) to connect our code 250 track to code 332 track, such as AristoCraft, LGB, USA trains, Pola etc.